


above the hotspots I found you

by lezz1e



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Abandonment, Agender Character, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Demiboy Character, Exploration, Falling In Love, Genderfluid Character, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Non-binary character, Ocean, Other, Trans Character, Transphobia, they/them pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 06:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lezz1e/pseuds/lezz1e
Summary: Their face was dotted with specks of red marks that looked like freckles and ears that were so long and sharp that, Jake wondered whether they could hear how loudly he was breathing.





	above the hotspots I found you

**Author's Note:**

> this is,,, completely inaccurate to science,,,, this is inaccurate. i watch one documentary and think it's enough information to write something like this,,, help
> 
> pronouns change a lot so i'll list them here so you don't get mixed up:
> 
> Jake: he/they
> 
> Brooke: she/they
> 
> Rich: they/them
> 
> Chloe: he/him and she/her
> 
> Jeremy: he/him
> 
> Michael:he/him

__“Are you ready?” he asks, turning to Brooke who was climbing into her robotic suit, her legs clipping into the brackets of her uniform, her hands finding the stick shifts of the machinery. His smile widening as she turned to face him with a wide grin, the glass screen (of the robotic suit) in front of her making her smile shine even brighter.

“After five years we’re actually doing this.” she says with a sigh, releasing one of the stick shifts and taking a deep breath.

“We’re going to see the volcano! The volcano that, one day, is gonna make an island! How cool is that? Mate, this is so cool!” Jake exclaims, moving the gears of the robot forward, making it take steps towards the submarine.

It had taken three years of studying.

Three years of having his head stuck in a biology book or books of engineering, books of survival, books about cooking: his head stuck in books, books of every kind. He even had to how to go to the toilet underwater. He had to learn how to cook underwater, how to cut food underwater, gather food underwater, exercise underwater and just, live underwater. He had to learn how to live underwater.

Three years of taking rigorous tests. Surprise tests, planned tests, physical tests, written tests, computer tests and verbal tests. He couldn’t think of any other format of test that could be done.

Three years of being stuck in a university that was filled with boring people. Apart from Brooke that was, Brooke was the best part of their whole university experience.

They may have always wanted to go into ocean research and they may have always wanted to go to that university but Brooke was the reason that want and enjoyment for the ocean stayed put. Without Brooke, they don’t know if they would have loved the ocean after all the hard work. They don’t know whether they would have wanted to see an underwater unerupted volcano without Brooke at their side.

They were grateful for her to say the least.

And finally, two years of physical training. Making sure that when they finally submerged from the water, that they could walk without being in and/or prompting an enormous and heavy robot.

They’d done so much to get this far.

They looked over to Brooke again, who was smoothing her thumb against the photograph of her sisters. Her lip quivering slightly as her shoulders shook subtly.

The two of them had done so much to get this far.

Brooke had left her family for the university. Not only was it her dream to go into the deep depths of the ocean, it was important for her to get away from her family. Well, not all her family, just her parents.

Her family visited frequently. Her baby sister, Megan, who had just turned six still uses her deadname, and still asks Brooke why she decided to grow her hair out so long. Her parents still insist that it’s inappropriate for her sister to use her name. They say it’d confuse her.

Brooke and Jake know better than that.

Brooke knows that it would make more sense for Megan if she had a ‘girl name’. Brooke knows that it’d make more sense for Megan if she had ‘girl pronouns’.

Brooke knows that her parents don’t accept her.

Her older sisters do, though. Jake knows how much she’ll miss them.

Her two older sisters were there for her, supported her and pretty much built her into the confident woman she was. Her two older sisters meant the world to her.

“How long does it take for communications to work when we’re down there?” Brooke asks, chipping the genderfluid colours off her nails, her lips pinching into an uncomfortable expression.

“Two months or so,” he replies, letting out a sigh, a ‘I’m sorry Brooke’ ghosting off his lips and into silence. Their stomach becoming heavy as Brooke let out a pained huff.

“How long does it take to set up base down there?” Brooke continues, looking to Jake as a loud buzzer started to ring through their ears, signally them to move to the deck of the ship.

The heaviness in Jake’s stomach got worse, their stomach feeling as if it was jumbling together all the substances inside it. Their mouth opening to reply to Brooke, before closing again.

Should they go for a sympathising message? Would Brooke appreciate that? Or would Brooke appreciate it blunt?

And even if they were going to tell her a sympathising message, what would they say?

“A month at least,” they answer, watching Brooke’s face fall even more. It’s hard to watch her like this, it’s hard to watch her battle with her complicated issues with her family.

Leaving means she won’t see her parents for at least five months, it means she doesn’t have to fight her parents anymore. But, leaving also means she won’t see her sisters, who have fought their family for so long to get Brooke where she is today.

“Okay,” Brooke says, a little too chipper, making Jake worry.

They wonder why they don’t feel like Brooke does.

They won’t miss the surface, they won’t miss the people on the surface. They won’t miss their family.

It might have to do with the fact that they haven’t seen their parents for years. Or the fact that when his parents did leave, they never said goodbye.

It’s surreal, unfathomable. They don’t feel like their parents are actually, gone. They know their parents are gone, they know their parents are never coming back.

But, they never said goodbye, so how can he say for sure? So, are they really gone? Are they really gone?

But their parents never said goodbye? So, are they really gone? Are they really gone?

The clunk of heavy metal pulled Jake out of his thoughts, his head shaking a little to fully isolate himself away from those thoughts. The clunk, clunk, clunk of metal feet hitting the metal deck supplied him with a well needed distraction. Sounds of metal hitting metal calming him in a way that he couldn’t describe.

It was repetitive, it was ordered. While they didn’t follow each other with the same amount of time in-between them, they were ordered. He was ordered. He was fine, because he was orderly.

His robot was orderly, and to extension, he was too.

It was calming, it distracted him. Since, it wasn’t him that needed comfort in the first place, it was Brooke.

He looked out of the glass screen directly in front of his face and let a smile grace upon his face. Ranges of gold (supplied from the sun) gleamed against the dull cream of the deck, making it seem cleaner and pristine. Sharp rays from the sun pierced into the sea, making white lights reflect off it, resulting in the sea sparkling like luminescent glitter.

Spits of water sprouted from the ocean, hitting against the glass screen and making Jake jump. His hand coming to rest at his chest as he let out a nervous chuckle. The soft ruffling sounds coming from the front of the boat (where the waves were hitting against the arrow shaped front of the boat) blending with the squawks of birds flying overhead.

Even from the inside, Jake could feel the heat sizzling softly. He could imagine how hot the metal outer casing of his robot was, as well as shiny.

“Temperature increase,” the artificial intelligence in the suit tells him quietly in his ear, the suit getting slightly cooler as the AI turned the cooling system on.

“Over here!” Their instructor says from the edge of the boat where the submarine was located, and where soon they would be dropped into the water.

An overjoyed smile was on her face as she patted the shoulders of each robot before letting her hands rest back on her hips.

“Five years and you’re here!” she exclaims, standing strong and tall, her eyes filled with pride for Jake and Brooke. She looked at them as if they were her own children.

Jake thinks she’d be a good parent. Better than Brooke’s or Jake’s, that’s for sure.

The two of them nod back at her, their smiles matching hers: big, bright and buzzed. She gives them an enthusiastic thumbs-up, her grin toothy and wide. Smoothly, she slides to the left, allowing then to fully see the submarine they would soon live in for five months or so (probably longer).

“See you on the other side kiddos!” she yells, her voice loud and ecstatic as she waves her arms from side to side dramatically, watching them step into the submarine. Her ‘I’ll miss you two!’ interrupted by the automatically sealing submarine doors.

“Gonna miss you Marie!” Brooke yells back, not knowing whether Marie could hear them, hoping that she miraculously got into the control room (within a matter of seconds) and was watching the security camera.

Letting her shoulders drop with nervousness, Brooke’s eyes scan across the room, finding piles and piles of construction resources dotted around the room.

“Miss you too Mar!” Jake adds, waving his hand to the camera rather than looking to the sealed door of the submarine. He then followed Brooke into the corner of the room where there were plastic brackets implanted into the floor where the suits were meant to be placed.

“Why do you call her that? It’s embarrassing,” Brooke says with a huff, the brackets making sharp clicks as they latched onto the feet of the robot. Her lips curling into a fake disappointed frown.

“Look, a dudes gotta have a brand, an impact on the world. My impact of this world is that I call our instructor Mar,” Jake replied playfully, pulling his hands off the stick shifts on the dashboard of his suit and instead waving them around for exaggeration.

“That makes zero sense,” Brooke tells him in a dull tone, pulling her feet out of the leg spaces of the suit and resting them on the dashboard.

“That’s because you’re not a dude,” Jake counteracts, watching as Brooke smirks and gives him a finger-gun doubled with a wink.

“Thanks dude,” she tells him, drawing a heart on her glass screen with her toe. Jake gives her a strange look in response, his eyes moving from side to side as his eyebrows scrunch inwards.

“No prob, hon,” Jake replies, slightly suspiciously before bursting into laughter, laughing even harder as Brooke joined in.

* * *

 

“You’re at a depth of four hundred metres, and while it isn’t exactly safe for either of you to climb out of your robotic suits until you’re at the bottom, it’s understandable if you need to get out. If you are planning to get out of your suits, make sure to eat, excrete and exercise. Try to stay in your suits if you can,” Marie said from the speaker located in the top corner of the room, her voice changing from its previously chipper and happy tone into a serious and professional tone.

“In thirty minutes or so, we will lose complete communication with you. That’s cameras and this speaker. That communication will only come back if you get to a depth of four hundred and fifty metres. This method of getting to that depth is explained in the booklets located in the compartment next to each of your rooms. Everything you need to know is in those booklets. Remember, you can come back at any time, you are not required to bring anything back. This is an exploration expedition.” She continues before letting out a heavy sigh, the tone of her voice becoming more relaxed as she finishes telling them the mandatory stuff that they needed to know.

“Have fun! Take pictures for me!” she adds, her voice returning to its cheerful and happy default for a second for disappearing.

It suddenly becomes clear to Jake how daunting it is. It wasn’t as clear to him before, he didn’t have the revelation that Brooke did before they entered the submarine. It wasn’t even clear to them when they had been in there for an hour.

Only now was it clear that they and Brooke, were in the middle of the ocean all alone.

They are in the middle of the ocean all alone, and Jake can think of a million reckless things that they want to do, and not a better place to do them.

Quickly, Jake hits the eject button on the dashboard of his suit, making the glass screen open like a soda can, gases and fizzing sounds sizzling around the edges of the glass. Gases condensing in the corners of the screen as the suit adjusted to the air in the submarine. Their AI quietly whispering ‘ejecting’ from the earpieces that were somehow still in his ear.

They tear them from their ears before winding the earpieces together rapidly and carelessly throwing them into one of the pockets inside the robot. They press their toes against the metal at the bottom of the suit before jumping and landing their feet on the dashboard. Suddenly, the dashboard exploded with colours and sounds. Lights flashed at uneven times and the beeps of noise got closer and closer together as they moved their feet to the edge of the opening in the robot.

Slowly they shifted their feet to the edges, praying not to fall on their face and bruise it against the floor.

They take a deep breath before bouncing off the suit like a frog.

As always, they land impeccably onto the ground. Without any arrogance for climbing out without fail (unlike Brooke who always fell on her face unless Jake was there to catch her) they moved over to Brooke, their hands already out to help her out.

“Impeccable as always Jake,” Brooke notes, a tiny bit of jealously in the tone of her voice before taking their hands and jumping from the robot and onto the ground.

“You got alcohol, right?” she asks, a sweet smile glazed across her face before turning into a brighter smile with her eyes gleaming as Jake nodded.

* * *

 

“But, she was so cute and! I wanted to do stuff and-“ Brooke says, resting her head onto Jake’s shoulders, her hand lazily handing Jake the bottle. Her lips forming a pout, her eyes looking to Jake in appreciation as he wraps his arm across her shoulders to give a half-hug (it was more like Brooke was leaning against him but she appreciated it anyway).

“Brooke, that’s scandalous, hon,” Jake replies, resting his head upon her head, her head digging into his chin as he spoke, making it sound slightly weird.

“Like, I wanted to kiss her and cuddle her and,” Brooke continues, her hand moving to tuck her hair behind her ear. Her movements becoming slower as if something in her brain had shifted dramatically.

“Oh, that’s just gay,” he adds, his voice still strange from the way his cheek was pressed into Brooke’s head.

“You’re pan,” she tells him, the tone of her voice softer and colder from the last time she spoke. Her body laying more heavily onto Jake.

“It’s not gay if you say no homo,” Jake counteracts, giving her a couple of finger-guns combined with a string of chuckles. His hands dropping back to Brooke’s shoulder, waiting for her to reply.

“Why doesn’t anyone want to be homo with me?” she asks, nuzzling her head into the space just beneath Jake’s neck before letting out a tiny sniffle.

“Hey, hey you’re amazing and, someone’s gonna be homo with you I promise,” Jake tells her, his chin digging into her forehead without him knowing.

“I’m gonna go to bed,” Brooke whispers, dragging herself off the floor and trotting her way to her room. Her shoulders slumped downwards and her footsteps small.

Jake wishes they could do something, do something to make her feel just a little better. But they know it’s partly booze and partly repressed feelings that she wouldn’t allow herself to feel sober. It’s not something that can be solved while she’s drunk. It’s not something she can solve underwater.

It’s not something Jake can solve. It’s something he can support her with, but he can’t do anything to solve it. It’s frustrating.

It makes his fingers itch with a feeling of helplessness and makes his stomach sink, his heart feeling a little stingy in his chest.

He drags himself off the floor, the bottle dangling from his fingertips. He slumps over to the huge window in the back of the submarine, his legs crossed over each other with his back hunched over the bottle in between his legs.

Speckles of dust and seaweed floated across the window, the dark blue of the sea making them seem menacing and almost frightening. The lights from the submarine made everything seem darker: it made shadows bigger, more looming and made the endless water beneath them seem like forever.

Even now, he was still in awe. After five years of studying, they were in the ocean, exploring the depths, exploring an underwater that hadn’t erupted yet.

How amazing was that? How lucky was he?

He smiled to himself, he knew that this feeling was worse with the alcohol in effect, that things were probably more exaggerated with alcohol in his system.

Then something suddenly bumped into the window.

Jake straightened his back a little, his head lolling to the side as the creature came into view.

Blue eyes were staring back at him. Pretty, ice blue eyes looked at him with curiousity. They scanned Jake’s body, stared at his legs for a moment too long before glancing at the object they had smashed into.

Slowly, they placed their fingers onto the window of the submarine before looking directly at Jake, their eyes fluttering to Jake’s legs again.

They were beautiful.

Jake, he couldn’t, the creature was beautiful.

Their face was dotted with specks of red marks that looked like freckles and ears that were so long and sharp that, Jake wondered whether they could hear how loudly he was breathing.

Their short brown hair swayed with the tide of the ocean, covering the slightly sharped ears they had.

Jake didn’t know what it was, didn’t have to know what it was to know that they were beautiful.

They stared back to Jake’s face, their lips pressing together before pressing their entire body against the submarine.

Jake sucked in a breath.

At their waist was a ring of small scales in a range of orange and red scales. The centre scales reaching up to where their belly button should be. A wispy tail waving around the water behind them, obviously belonging to them.

They noticed the change in expression and bit their lip, their arm moving to scratch at the other. Quickly, they press a kiss onto the window of the submarine and then, they are gone.

They are gone and Jake, Jake is mesmerised.

Jake is drunk, Jake is mesmerised and Jake thinks he just saw a merperson.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: so this was meant to be a multichap fic but i just don't have any motivation for it anymore so now it's a funky one shot!


End file.
